Thales the latest to flag digital transformation security opportunity

As customers make moves to roll out digital transformation projects many are doing so against a backdrop of increasing security vulnerabilities.

The 2019 Thales Data Threat Report - Europe Edition has given some context to the current situation with a third of enterprises suffering a data breach last year and just under a half not confident to describe their digital transformation deployments as very secure.

The risks are high because most European businesses are looking at pushing more sensitive data across a wider range of applications and platforms.

“Across Europe, organizations are embracing digital transformative technologies – while advancing their business objectives, this is also leaving sensitive data exposed,” said Sebastien Cano, senior vice president of cloud protection and licensing activity at Thales.

“European enterprises surveyed still do not rank data breach prevention as a top IT security spending priority – focusing more broadly on security best practice and brand reputation issues. Yet, data breaches continue to become more prevalent. These organisations need to take a hard look at their encryption and access management strategies in order to secure their digital transformation journey, especially as they transition to the cloud and strive to meet regulatory and compliance mandates," he added.

Resellers rolling up their sleeves to try and help customers reduce risk should take away from the report the conclusion that multi-cloud security remains the top challenge, with security of data, lack of visibility and vulnerabilities from shared infrastructure all issues that fall out of that broad concern.

The other main finding from the European research, which was carried out for Thales by IDC, indicated that attack levels are high and in the UK compliance, with the issue of GDPR, was a top priority for firms.

“Clearly there is a significant shift to digital transformation technologies and the issues around data held within these cannot be taken lightly,” said Frank Dickson, program vice president for security products research, IDC.

“Data privacy regulations have been hot on the agenda over the past 18 months, with so many coming into force. Organisations are now finding themselves considering the cost of becoming compliant against the risk of potential breaches and the subsequent fines.”

The idea that digital transformation is an area that offers plenty of opportunities for security resellers has been a theme of the year with other vendors coming out with research and encouragement to point partners in the right direction.

Zscaler warned last month in its Digital Transformation Report 2019, that fears over data integrity are paramount in the UK, along with worries about connecting remotely, using unsecured networks and unmanaged devices.

Others in the industry have echoed those findings and urged resellers to take advantage of the digital transformation movement by customers.

"Customers are on digital transformation journeys and partners are able to add really good value. Cyber security is what they need," said Matt Bruun, regional vice president at Forcepoint.

"Partners have a huge role to play in understanding the customer environment," he added "Customers are struggling with it with CEOs that expect to access data on any device but they want to do that securely."